Casey says sequester cuts starting to hurt

 Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa.(Matt Rourke/AP Photo, file)

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa.(Matt Rourke/AP Photo, file)

It may have been a little while since you heard talk about “the sequester.” One local lawmaker says it’s unfair and area workers are suffering because of it.

U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania) says now that the budget cuts are starting to take effect he believes the sequester is cutting in the wrong places and that’s why it’s so unfair.

“I think some people thought if you put sequestration into effect and you reduce spending that somehow that would have a positive outcome. What we are seeing over time and it’s been more gradual that expected,” said Casey. “We’re seeing now since March is the impact that sequestratration not just in terms of job loss but in terms of the indiscriminate nature of it. No family, no business would run their budget this way.”

Casey says across the board cuts don’t do the job as well as targeted ones.

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“Programs that are important to our national defense, programs that are important to our economic development and job growth are treated the same way as wasteful programs that do not move our country forward.”

The across-the-board nature of the cuts was supposed to motivate lawmakers to find another way to reduce government spending.

People who work for area defense contractors are feeling the pinch of sequester. In social media some saying their pay has been cut between 20 and 40 percent from now through September while they try to meet federal contract deadlines under the sequester’s constraints.

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